Mercedes clutched the dagger she had found searching through Skyra’s belongings.

‘Please make Carlos happy.’

She made her final wish.

That too, was for Carlos.

With her very last ounce of strength, Mercedes lightly cast a spell to make Carlos’s hand stick tightly to the sword.

She aimed so that the blade would precisely sever her neck.

Mercedes tightly shut her eyes. How chilling would the moment be when the blade touched her. Just imagining it was terrifying.

Her body also trembled finely. But if it was for Carlos, who seemed to be on the verge of his last breath right now.

She made up her mind and let her body fall onto the sword. And at that moment.

“What are you, doing.”

A low, hoarse voice was heard. At the same time, a strong force pushed her away.

Carlos, with his hand magically bound, turned his body and shook off Mercedes. Pushed back, she rolled on the ground.

“Release this, right now. Mercedes.”

He had opened his eyes at a truly, precarious moment.

“Carl?”

Mercedes looked at him in bewilderment. She thought he would never wake up again. The Carlos that Mercedes sensed was clearly on the verge of death, she thought. How on earth…

“Carlos. How. Are you, are you alright?”

She asked hurriedly, rushing towards Carlos. Forgetting that she had magically bound the dagger.

Carlos quickly turned his body to prevent her from touching the sword, and said once more in a hoarse, low voice.

“Mercedes. What on earth were you trying to do just now?”

“…Carl. I want to save you.”

“Damn it, Skyra…”

Surveying the surroundings, Carlos grasped the whole situation from Mercedes’ single sentence.

“It’s something you didn’t need to know. Forget it. And live on.”

Carlos spoke as if grinding his words.

“No. I’m going to save you.”

Mercedes immediately expressed her refusal to him. Their gazes met, tangling and intertwining like a spider’s web.

The forest, which should have been filled with animal cries, was eerily quiet.

“Then think of our deal. You said you’d help me kill you if I helped with your revenge.”

“That’s already in the past, Mercedes. I swore I wouldn’t kill you in front of you.”

“Carl, look at me. You have to live. You have so much to accomplish, so much you’ve already achieved.”

Mercedes began to plead, caressing his face with her hand. Carlos buried his face in her hand. Both of their eyes were reddened.

“For you, I would-”

“Ah, Mercedes. Please, please. Don’t ask me to kill you. I’ve already prepared everything. This country will run well even without me. So Mercedes. You go your own way. Tread the paths you couldn’t before, and live anew.”

The touching hands were cold, and the touching cheeks were hot. As they talked, their voices became increasingly tearful, and their faces contorted.

“Why. Why on earth… did you shoulder everything alone. Why so, painfully.”

“Because it was a story you didn’t need to know.”

“No. This was something I needed to know too. It’s our story, isn’t it? In the end, it’s something only we can resolve. Not just you alone.”

“From the start, I was a bastard who brought you here intending to use you. So it’s right that I bear it.”

Mercedes shook her head.

Carlos had said he was stiffening, yet his movements were quick and his strength was strong.

There was no way Mercedes had any strength left to subdue him. Though the binding remained, even if she approached to end her own breath like this, it seemed difficult to fulfill the condition of ‘must kill directly.’

Carlos kept his arms as far away as possible so that the dagger wouldn’t point towards her.

In the end, the only means left to the two was conversation. They persuaded and persuaded each other.

“I want my life to become yours. Why should you be punished?”

“You… you’re strong enough to rush towards death. But you fell in love with a guy like me. That’s how it ended up like this. This is all my fault.”

Mercedes’s face crumpled at Carlos’s self-blaming words.

“You said you were a bastard, right? That’s utter nonsense. Cut that crap out. My feelings are my own.”

“Damn it. Such a stubborn one!”

Carlos was the first to move away from her.

Looking at her body heat, her scent, her gaze, her tears so closely, he unconsciously wanted to grasp life.

Now, he really wanted to stop.

Perhaps Carlos thought that because she was stronger than him, she would endure better in a world without him than he could in a world without her.

“You think Carlos has no stubbornness? You should have just killed me on the day you tried to kill me!”

Mercedes was also increasingly thinking like that. That she was a coward.

Thus, the two fought, raising their voices for the first time, because they were afraid of a world without each other, because they wanted to save each other.

“How can I! Kill you… you. Mel, you! How. Can I.”

Carlos answered almost like a wail.

Mercedes looked at him like that and bit her lip.

Then a thought flashed through Carlos’s mind.

He had used aura to break magic on the battlefield before. What started with Skyra’s advice later became quite easy to accomplish.

So he thought he could break her magic too. But it wouldn’t budge at all.

Then… if this power couldn’t be broken.

‘Let’s pour it out.’

It seems to be magic strong enough to handle even if he overuses aura. For him, who sometimes injured bystanders while wielding aura, it was as if he had found just the right opponent.

If he overused aura like that, his heart would harden immediately. He could die.

The thought that flashed through his mind soon became a resolution within him.

Since it seems difficult to persuade Mercedes. So…

“…Mercedes.”

Having finished his thoughts, he took her in with his eyes. It was fortunate that the last thing he could see before leaving was an unharmed face.

“I love you.”

Carlos whispered in his usual gentle voice.

Mercedes didn’t exactly grasp what he was trying to do. But she realized he was trying to do something.

“Carlos?”

He didn’t answer. He just drew up all the aura in his body. For him, who was accustomed to using aura, it was possible in an instant, so she wouldn’t have time to stop him.

Foolishly kind woman.

From the beginning, he had deceived her and brought her, and arbitrarily whispered that he loved her. How could she care for him like this? What was he even.

But before the aura could boil up, Mercedes leaped into his arms without hesitation.

Surprisingly, her judgment was faster than Carlos’s.

Taken aback, Carlos was pushed back. Straddling Carlos, she gripped the dagger tightly and asked with piercing eyes facing him.

“What were you trying to do just now?”

“Mercedes!”

He quickly tried to push away the dagger, but Mercedes grabbed the blade with her bare hand.

“I’m asking what you were trying to do just now!”

“What are you doing, your hand will get hurt! Damn it. With those eyes- please.”

Carlos pleaded as he pulled the dagger from her hand. Seeing the blood forming on Mercedes’ white hand seemed to pain him more.

“I don’t know what it is, but if you promise not to do it, I’ll let go of this sword.”

“Alright. I’ll do that. Let go of the sword before it cuts deeper, Mercedes.”

Mercedes let go of the sword obediently, though with a sharp gaze.

Then Carlos raised his arms to be careful not to touch the dagger, passing over her head and embracing her in one motion.

Though his hands were bound, it was possible because his arms were long enough and his chest was broad enough.

“Damn it. You’re too reckless.”

“You’re not one to talk.”

“Mel. My Mel…”

At the end of the fight, they ended up embracing to stop each other.

Getting this close, their hearts quickly grew hot.

To be able to hold the one you love in your arms in the final moment. What a happy ending this is.

Carlos liked this sweet and painful end. Also, his emotions were overflowing and he couldn’t hold back.

He pulled her closer, making her lean tightly against his body, and kissed her. Mercedes also accepted his kiss.

Tears mixed in and there was a salty taste. The two shared breaths as if confirming that they were ‘still’ alive, sharing and sharing… and sharing. It was excessively sweet.

“Haa, haa.”

“Mel. I love you so much.”

Held in his arms, she could no longer resist or threaten with the dagger.

So he tried to draw up his aura with peace of mind, when-.

“…Carl. Wait a moment.”

Mercedes made a strange, peculiar face.

“Mel?”

“Wait, wait… The breath transmitted to me from your lips, what’s imbued in it… I can feel it vividly. This is similar to the life force I absorbed. Today I…”

“What are you saying, Mel?”

“Wait. Mother… Ah, was that it. Was that what it was. That, that…”

Mercedes suddenly muttered as if something had occurred to her. As if the memory was too faint, she even ruffled her hair as if about to tear it out.

Carlos thought he should die right now, but Mercedes’ unfamiliar behavior made him unable to do anything but watch for a moment.

“Carl. Carlos. Mrs. Fisher said so. That there could be another solution. That the cause is important.”

“…Right.”

Carlos answered dazedly, surprised by Mercedes’ sudden change in attitude.

“I remembered. There might be… a way. Yes, there is. There is!”

“What are you saying?”

“Me and you. I think we might both be able to live!”

She looked at him, amazed at the past she recalled, at her own thoughts. Light green eyes shining from up close. Eyes that come to life whenever she realizes something, whenever she learns.

Those were the eyes he truly loved.